


a force to be reckoned with

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: AU, Fluff, M/M, Nouis, its sickening, like literally just fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-20
Updated: 2015-04-20
Packaged: 2018-03-24 23:18:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3788023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>"Oh, yeah, Niall and I are dating," Louis had told them a few minutes later, in afterthought.</em><br/><em>"Yeah," Zayn had said.</em><br/><em>"I would hope so," Liam had replied.</em><br/><em>"You just kissed him," Harry had added.</em><br/><em>Louis deflected the ping-pong ball back at Zayn, developed a kind of faraway, dreamy sort of smile.</em><br/><em>"Yeah," he said, the smile grew. "I did."<em></em></em><br/>Niall and Louis are a couple and literally everything revolves around them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a force to be reckoned with

**Author's Note:**

> Idk honestly. This is very loosely based/ influenced by this [post](http://ameliaproblems.tumblr.com/post/101033373839/nouis-uni-au)
> 
> but really i just wanted to write nouis being adorable and annoying and idiots
> 
> also it's kinda all from liam's pov, because i guess i wanted an observers perspective, but its all about nouis

Nobody's really quite sure how it happened. 

Looking at them now, it's hard to believe anything but the idea that they have just _always_ been like that. That there wasn't ever a period in their lives when they weren't together, when they didn't even _know_ each other. 

But when Liam really thinks about it, he's sure he can pinpoint the exact moment it all begun. Unless they had had happened to meet beforehand, whether briefly through friends or stumbling into each other on campus, Niall and Louis met at Perrie's birthday party last year. 

Niall had turned up as your run of the mill, painfully generic pirate; sword and eyepatch and fake parrot on his shoulder. Bursting through the front door with a loud 'arrgghhhh!' and then faltering as he entered the lounge-room. Taking in the girls in dresses and boys in shirts and blazers, realizing with a flush of embarrassment that 'dress up' had not meant 'wear a costume,' but rather the opposite of 'dress down.' 

Perrie had just giggled and patted him sympathetically on the back, Liam had wanted to laugh but felt bad as Niall shuffled his feet, eyes darting towards the door as though he was tempted to bolt out of there. 

That is, of course, until Louis had showed up. 

Louis was a pretty close friend of Zayn, a guy that Liam, Niall, and Harry were all pretty friendly with. Liam had met Louis on one other occasion, and he doubted that Niall had really ever seen him at all. 

But there Louis was, strolling into the lounge-room, dressed as nothing other than Captain Hook. It took about two seconds for him to realize his mistake, and then, by the way his eyes darted around the room and his face lit up in a grin, about another two seconds for him to notice that Niall was in the exact same boat. 

Their eyes met, they burst out laughing, and suddenly the room was full of loud, excited shouts, the two boys running up and embracing each other like old friends. Slapping each other on the back, poking each other with their swords, inspecting each other's costumes. They seemed to be pulled into their own little world, full of bad pirate puns and sentences ending with long and unecessary 'arghs!', and though they acknowledged no one but each other, they were the centre of everyone elses attention. Liam remembers hearing people around him muttering to each other, wondering if the two boys had planned it. Eyes widening in surprise when Liam turned around and told them that Niall and Louis hadn't even met each other before. 

A little while later, while Liam, Harry, Niall, Zayn and Louis were hanging out together, Louis kept sneaking pirate puns into the conversation and looking at Niall, and Niall kept glancing at Louis and biting his lip to stifle his laughter. Eventually, Zayn had gone to spend time with Perrie, and Liam and Harry, realizing it was hopeless to try and strike up a conversation with Niall and Louis, left them and didn't see them again until it was time to leave. 

And they'd been inseperable ever since. 

It had appeared they were best friends at first. Always horsing around, playfighting and insulting each other. They always sat next to each other on the old couch in Harry's garage - which is set up as a bit of a gaming room, with a TV and consoles, pool and ping pong table, mini fridge. It was pretty funny to watch them whenever they played FIFA. Put them on a team together and they were full of encouragements, always complimenting each other on a pass, jumping up and pulling the other in for a hug when they scored a goal.

"Nice shot, Niall!" 

"Wow, Louis, how'd you manage to do that? That was amazing!" 

Put them on opposing sides and they were each other's worst enemies. 

Louis would usually try and distract Niall whenever he had the ball, pushing him off the couch, flicking his ear, blowing air on the side of his face. Niall would shove him out the way (usually more invested in the game to do anything to Louis), though sometimes he'd jumped to his feet and play whilst standing right in Louis's way. 

And there was always _hundreds_ of annoying, sarcastic comments. 

"I wish I was as good as you," Louis would say, after Niall had missed the shot. 

"Don't miss...DON'T MISS," Niall would yell, when Louis was going for goal. 

"NIALL HORAN, KNOWN FOR HIS AMAZING ABILITY TO KICK THE BALL TO NO ONE." 

"AND ANOTHER BAD PASS BY TOMLINSON." 

"Oh, I'm sorry, are you still playing, Niall? You haven't been doing anything, I thought you'd stopped." 

"You're an idiot. Shut up." 

"Oh, be _quiet_ , Niall." 

"I now hate you." 

"I never even liked you." 

The others had laughed and joined in on the banter for a bit, Zayn was usually the best at keeping up with them. But after a while, it become apparent that the two boys were too focused on each other, and everyone else just let them either hash it out or be so supportive it was almost sickening. 

One thing Liam is sure of is that nobody really knows when the two of them became more than friends. He'd noticed a slight shift, sure. The way the two boys would squish together on the couch, legs pressed up against each other, arms brushing. The way they'd stare at each other a little too intensely when the other way talking, get so caught up that they'd always miss the fact that the conversation had turned to them. The amount of times Liam had heard either one of the say, "Sorry, say that again," or "Wait, what," quickly became too many to count. 

But when it actually became 'official', Liam has no idea. Though he remembers when he figured it out. They'd been at Harry's place, playing ping pong. Niall and Liam against Harry and Louis, and Niall and Louis were doing their usual snarky bit, insults like the pingpong ball darting across the table, when Niall's phone rung in his pocket. 

"Sorry," he said, digging his phone out of his shorts and coincidently missing the ball Louis had sent his way. "I gotta get this." 

"Giving up?" Louis had grinned at him, placing his bat on the table. "I mean I know you were playing _awful_ but you could've at least finished the game." 

Niall had snorted, put his phone up to his ear without actually taking the call. 

"Hello?" he said. "God? You want me to have mercy on Louis? Stop playing pingpong so I don't humiliate him in front of everyone? Well, if you insist." 

He grinned, took the actual call, left the room. Harry was sniggering. Louis shaking his head, eyes following Niall until he had disappeared. He had such a stupidly fond grin on his face that, looking back, Liam is surprised he didn't realize it then. 

It wasn't until Niall had come back, telling the boys he had to go, apologizing, that Liam realized. Well, honestly, _could he miss it?_

Louis had said, "Where are you going? Can I come too?" 

And Niall had shaken his head and told him he'd catch up later, said he'd meet Louis back at his place. 

And Louis had said, "Okay, babe." 

And kissed him. 

Everyone had kind of gone still, Liam shared glances with Harry and Zayn in turn, as the two boys pulled away, Louis ruffling Niall's hair, Niall giving a small wave and leaving. But then it kind of immediately went back to normal. Louis picked up the ping pong bat and challenged Zayn to a game, Harry and Liam shared a shrug, because, really, in all honestly, they had all seen this coming. 

"Oh, yeah, Niall and I are dating," Louis had told them a few minutes later, in afterthought. 

"Yeah," Zayn had said. 

"I would hope so," Liam had replied. 

"You just kissed him," Harry had added. 

Louis deflected the ping pong ball back at Zayn, developed a kinda of faraway, dreamy sort of smile. 

"Yeah," he said, the smile grows. "I did." 

 

There's no denying that they are cute. Liam has never heard anyone say a bad word against them, except for maybe that it's almost sickening how cute they are. What with all the giggles and inside jokes and the funny faces they pull at each other if they're ever sitting on opposite sides of the room. 

It seems a lot of the time they match, one day each are wearing something green, another day both wearing knitted sweaters. The same types of shoes and sunglasses, and the same stupid grin that tells you they're up to no good. They've also developed this kinda creepy habit of speaking in unison, even moving in sync. Liam will usually falter mid sentence whenever they turn their heads to look at him at the same time, quirk their eyebrows in the same way. 

"It's like they've become one person," Harry says one day, while he, Liam and Zayn sit in his garage and wait for the other two to arrive. 

"I know. The other day I was talking to Niall and I had to keep reminding myself that I was talking to Niall, like. He sounded almost exactly like Louis, said all these things Louis does," Zayn shakes his head.

"I'm surprised you were able to talk to just Niall," Liam says. "It's hard to get them by themselves." 

Harry laughs and he and Zayn nod their head in agreement. 

Niall and Louis arrive together, half way through a conversation. The other three can hear them talking to each other, even as they walk through the front door. 

"Do you reckon you could just break the shell off and it'd keep it's shape? You know, like a hard-boiled egg, but frozen obviously. What would you call it? An egg-sicle? Eggs cream?" Niall is saying, shutting the front door behind them. 

"I don't think you should name it after something edible," Louis replies. 

"What? Why not? It's an egg." 

"Yeah, a raw egg," Louis says. There's a pause. "What, you aren't going to eat it are you?" 

"It's not raw if it's frozen though, is it?" 

"Oh, _god_ , Niall." 

"What?" Niall says again, they're right outside the door to the garage. "I'm gonna try it, though." 

"You can't eat raw egg." 

"Oh, yeah, salmonella and all that crap. I've eaten so much cookie dough in my lifetime that if I was actually gonna get salmonella I would surely have died from it by now." 

"I meant because it'd be disgusting." 

They enter the garage and the other three stare at them from over the back of the couch. The two boys look quite immersed in their conversation. Liam notices that Niall's blue baseball cap matches Louis's blue shirt. 

"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Zayn asks. 

"We froze an egg because we wanted to see what will happen," Louis shrugs, as though that is the most ordinary thing in the world. Liam supposes that in Louis and Niall's world, it is. "Niall wants to eat it." 

"Just try it," Niall corrects defensively. "Maybe, like, lick it or something." 

Everyone laughs but Louis, who just smiles fondly and pushes the side of Niall's head. 

"Idiot," he mutters. He turns to the others. "Alright, who wants to get their ass kicked at Mario Kart?" 

 

They start a study group because they're falling behind and they start with a much larger group of students then what they end up with. Liam supposes it's good, because a smaller group will probably be more effective to work with. But he's also really concerned because he knows why they all _left_ the group. And it's that they can't seem to get any work done. Maybe it was a bad idea for the five of them to start the group, for Liam and Zayn to run it, because all they do is distract each other. Okay. So it's not so much Harry. Or the friendly guy called Josh and the quiet guy called Ed. He doesn't want to blame anyone. But he knows that more often than not he's distracted by Niall and Louis mucking around. Most of the time, it seems that they've placed it upon themselves to annoy the shit out of everyone. Especially Zayn. 

"Lou. Louis. He's here, I can see his car." 

Niall's feet are bouncing up at down, and he hits Louis's side with the back of his hand excitedly, gazing out the window. 

Louis, who's sitting next to Niall at the back of the room, looks at Niall with a grin. 

"He's still angry at us for yesterday," Louis grins, and the two of them collapse in a small fit of laughter. 

"Yeah, because you somehow managed to draw a dick on his face while he was helping you with your work," Liam points out, albeit irritably. 

"Oh, shut up, Liam, it was impressive," Harry says with a wave of his hand. He's leaning back in his chair, chewing gum that fills the whole room with the smell of watermelon.

"Harry, you are the only one that could truly appreciate that incredible piece of art," Louis says with false emotion. "You are far greater than anyone in this room." 

"Louis, he's coming," Niall hisses, tugging on Louis's sleeve. 

"Okay," Louis glances around the room thoughtfully. "How about you hide? I'll tell him you're late and that we can't start without you..." 

Niall is already sniggering. "Oh mean, he'd be so annoyed." 

"Yeah." Louis freezes, they can hear Zayn right outside the door. "Quick! Get under the table." 

He places a hand on Niall's head and pushes him down, but uses too much force. There's a loud _thwack_ as Niall's forehead painfully collides with the tabletop. 

"Ow!" Niall cries. 

Everyone watches, the room still, like they're all holding their breath, as he lifts his head. His forehead is _red_ , and it looks painful, like _really_ painful, but just as Liam is about to ask if Niall is alright, Louis burst out laughing. 

Literally head thrown back, cackling at the ceiling. He almost falls off his chair. 

"Lou-eeeeee," Niall whines, gingerly touching his forehead and wincing. "That hurt!"

"I'm," Louis wheezes, struggles to speak through his laughter, "sorry." 

Zayn enters the room then, pauses with his hand on the doorknob as he takes in the scene. Niall pouts, juts out his bottom lip and gives Louis wide eyes. It manages to calm Louis down, and his face, entire being, softens. 

"Aww, babe," he coos, gently cups Niall's face with both hands, brushing his thumb across his cheek. "Baby, I'm so sorry." 

"I already have a headache," Niall mumbles, but he seems to be enjoying being fussed over. Louis laughs softly and presses small kisses all over his face. 

"Will this make you better?" he smiles, delicately kissing Niall's forehead, his nose, cheeks. Niall nods, movements small, like he's afraid moving too much will scare Louis away. 

"Does it hurt anywhere else? Need kisses anywhere else?" Louis asks, and Liam is one hundred percent sure that he's never heard Louis sound so soft and loving, so fond. A small smile creeps along Niall's face. 

"I can think of one other place." 

The whole room groans, turns away. Louis just laughs and pushes Niall in the shoulder. 

"You disgust me, Horan. You're a filthy pervert, you know that? _Disgusting_. I swear every minute I spend with you brings me one step closer to hell." Louis shakes his head and Niall is struggling not to laugh. "Seriously, Horan, have you even _read_ the Bible? Because you need to catch up on that." 

Niall shrugs, smug grin on his face. From the front of the room, Zayn rolls his eyes, sighs, and asks if they could please actually do work for once. 

 

When Niall and Louis have their first fight, Niall bursts into Liam's flat uninvited and faceplants on Liam's bed. Doesn't even say anything, not even after a full ten minutes of Liam attempting to coax answers out of him, running his hand along Niall's back, making Niall tea. 

Eventually, Liam manages to draw Niall out of his bedroom by ordering a pizza. The blonde boy appears in the kitchen doorway within seconds of the pizza arriving. Looking small and tired. 

"Hey," Liam says, pulling out a chair and gesturing for Niall to sit. "Good seeing your face." 

Niall doesn't say anything, just slips into the seat and pulls the pizza box in front of him. He starts a slice of pepperoni, but Liam guesses that he's only really eating as an excuse not to talk. 

Liam takes the seat opposite him and clasps his hands on the table. 

"You can talk to me, Niall," he says softly. "I'm here for you." 

"I dunno," Niall mumbles, shrugs, keeps his gaze on the pizza box. 

Liam sighs, braces himself before asking, "Is it Louis?" 

Of course it's Louis, Liam guessed that the moment Niall opened the front door. But saying Louis's name does something to Niall, his face contorts, almost like a wince, like he's in pain, but then it falls. Looks upset. 

"We had a fight," Niall murmurs. "I can't even remember what it was about, like, how it started. Over something stupid, I think. But we were yelling at each other and he got so _angry_ and I think...he..." he trails off, presses the heel of his hand against his right eye. 

"What do you think, Niall?" Liam presses. 

"I dunno," Niall says again. "I think he was...it was almost like he was jealous. Of, I dunno, it was stupid. Of me and Harry, I think. We've been spending some time together," he shrugs. "But it's stupid. I told him it was stupid. I told him I love him. But he won't talk to me." 

Silence settles over them. The slice of pizza Niall had nibbled at lays forgotten on the table and Liam gazes at his hands. Waiting to see if Niall wants to say anything else, and trying to think of some way to comfort him. 

"Louis loves you," he begins, once it's apparent Niall isn't going to say any more. "A lot." 

"But he doesn't trust me," Niall interrupts, finally meeting Liam's eye. "If he feels this threatened by Harry, then he obviously doesn't trust me." 

"I just think he doesn't know how to share you," Liam tells him honestly. "You guys have been glued to the hip for so long, he must be struggling to spend some time apart. To see you spending time with someone else. He'll come around, you know, get used to it."

Niall picks at the pepporoni on the pizza slice, contemplative. 

"He trusts you more than anyone, Ni," Liam sighs. "He's actually told me that he trusts you more anyone else. More than _himself_." 

A corner of Niall's mouth lifts, a stark contrast to the dark rings under his eyes. 

"Well, that's pretty easy considering," he mutters. "I don't even trust Louis with the TV remote." 

Liam smiles, reaches across the table and ruffles his hair. 

"Just talk to him, I'm one hundred percent certain he'll come around. Just give him those puppy dog eyes or whatever. Take the pizza if you'd like." 

"A peace offering," Niall nods, taps the side of his nose. "Very smart. Or a weapon of self defence if needed. No better way to fend off your enemies than to chuck an extra spicy pepperoni at their face." 

Niall tells Liam later that he hadn't even walked through the door of his and Louis's flat when Louis had lunged at him, wrapped him up his arms and apologized over and over. Though it was very short lived, because Niall had dropped the box of pizza in surprise, and they had pulled away quickly, aghast when they realized that the box had opened and every single slice was on the ground. Apparently it was _devastating_ , and Louis had fallen to his knees and yelled at the heavens for being so cruel. And then they'd held a funeral. Because _of course_ they had. Because they're _Niall and Louis_. 

 

"Okay, be honest, if you could have your wedding at McDonald's you would." 

"Well, nothing's stopping you." 

"What? You mean you'd be okay with it?" 

"How are you so sure it'll be me you'll get married to, Horan?" 

Even though it's dark and Liam is on the couch, staring up at the ceiling, and Niall and Louis are on the floor, Liam is almost positive that Niall is blushing. They both are probably. It almost feels awkward for a moment, though it never really feels awkward between Niall and Louis, and it's kind of jarring. 

"You're right," Liam says. "He'll be getting married to me. And I'm _definitely_ not okay with it." 

Niall laughs, "You're just gonna have to deal with it, Payno." 

"No way," Liam grins. 

Louis adds, "He is _so_ not lovin' it." 

Liam was kicked out of his apartment by his landlord two days ago and is staying with _'The World's Most Annoyingly Cute Couple'_ (as Harry had called them when he told him) for a couple of days while he finds another one. Zayn is living with Perrie and Harry is living with Ed and Josh and Liam doesn't really have anywhere else to go. It's been fun, he must admit, because Niall and Louis treat the whole thing like one big slumber party. They've set their mattress up on the lounge-room floor, covered it in blankets and pillows, so they can sleep out there with him. They stay up watching movies and telling ghost stories and talking about getting married at McDonald's. 

Last night they had watched Insidious and it turns out that both Niall and Louis are pretty terrible at scary movies. All three of them had squished up on the couch and Niall and Louis clung to each other the whole time. Every now and again Liam would glance over to see the two of them turned together, eyes squeezed shut, forehead's touching. Kinda funny. But their close proximity had turned into a lot of kissing, and then a makeout session. Liam had paused the movie, Louis's hand was up Niall's shirt and Niall mouth attached to Louis's neck, and told them to either leave or stay and sit separately. They'd left. 

Just a few hours ago, right before they'd gone to bed, Louis had said something about 'craving' roasted marshmallows and Niall had almost jumped out of his seat, scrambled to the pantry. 

"We got marshmallows, Tommo!" he'd said triumphantly, holding up the bright pink packet. 

"What? Are they roasted marshmallows in a packet?" Louis had asked, snorted. Niall glowered at him.

"They'll be roasted once I drag your ass to hell..." 

"You threatening me?" 

"You bet I am..." 

They were both standing, crowding into each other's space, tension so thick it was seconds away from turning into something sexual. Liam got between them quickly and glanced around the kitchen.

"Why don't we try roasting it there?" he'd asked, pointing to the stove and Louis and Niall stopped making violent gestures to each other, followed his gaze. 

Louis slapped him on the back. 

"I knew there was reason we let you stay here, Payno." 

But it hadn't worked out very well. Liam was worried about burning the house down and the fumes gave the marshmallows an odd taste. They'd ended up throwing the marshmallows at each other, after Louis had thrown one at Niall to get him to shut up, and it grew into a full fledged war. If you were hit, you were dead. They snuck around the house with marshmallows in their pockets, hid in cupboards and behind furniture. Played five rounds and Louis won three of them. Niall and Liam won one each. The victory really went to Louis's head. 

"I really am the best person on the planet," Louis says now, stretching out on the mattress on the floor. He accidently hits Niall in the face. 

"I'm pretty sure _everyone_ disagrees with that," Niall retorts, rubbing his nose. "I mean, you didn't even win at Marshmallow War. You cheated." 

"You're letting jealousy cloud your judgement." 

"Dunno," Liam butts in. "I gotta agree with Niall on this one." 

"Yeah, well, you're both jealous. And you both suck." 

"That's the worst argument I've ever heard," Niall scoffs. And he and Louis begin to bicker. Liam just turns over on the couch, so his back is to them, and tries to block them out. The argument is pretty quick to turn to giggling, and then he can hear them kissing and "night, love," and it's all too sickeningly sweet he wishes he was asleep. 

 

In the morning they are very soft. Liam is still half-asleep on the couch but he can hear them moving about in the kitchen. Murmuring to each other, sleepy and quiet. If he were to go in there he'd see them make breakfast together, bumping hips, Niall resting his head on Louis's shoulder as they watch the eggs cook on the stove. Pressing kisses into Louis's neck, Louis kissing his temple when they are serving up. Grabbing Niall's wrist and pulling him back in when he's about to wake Liam up, kissing his lips softly, wrapping their arms around each other. Then they begin giggling and Liam is up, he's up. He makes sure to make a bit of noise when he makes his way to the kitchen in order to alert them of his presence. Doesn't want to walk in on them with their hands down each other's pants. Has it happened before? He prefers not to think about it. 

 

Zayn makes them sit separately in their study group because they're too disruptive. They just send each other funny faces behind Zayn's back, begin to send messages via paper plane. When Zayn and Liam ban them for doing that, they try to learn Morse Code. Literally. Except they never quite get the hang of it and it ends up with them repeating the same few phrases over and over, like _fuck, fuck you, fuck me_ , and _I hate you_. And it always ends in so much goddamn giggling. 

 

They are different when they aren't around each other. Both are quieter, Niall isn't as mischevious and Louis isn't quite as soft. In fact, Liam realizes that Niall gets away with a lot when it comes to Louis. Is allowed to poke him and tickle him and insult him all he likes. Louis will usually just smile with his eyes crinkled at the edges, like he is looking into the sun, tickle him back and retort something as equally snarky but with a hidden softness lacing his tone, in his face, that is never there when Louis speaks that way to anyone else. It's interesting to see Niall hanging out without Louis around. Liam shouldn't find it weird, considering he knew Niall for a long time before he met Louis, but it is. Niall is still talkative and his laugh is still loud but he's more relaxed. Not as bouncy, energetic. Quite peaceful, doesn't join in when Liam and Harry are horsing around. Just laughs. Happy to sit there. 

Well, he's probably not as 'peaceful' as Liam is making out, because he's comparing it to when Niall and Louis are together and together they are a force to be reckoned with. 

If Liam had to explain it he would relate it back to when Niall and Louis had first met, when they'd both come as pirates to Perrie's party. 

They had been the centre of attention, drawn the eyes of everyone in the room. Caused a quiet, a stillness around them, like lights so bright they outshine the stars. You couldn't look away. But they were focused only on each other.

**Author's Note:**

> also i have a [tumblr](http://cupcakenouis.tumblr.com) idk


End file.
